Miami, United States, July 15, 2025 (Lusa) - The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has awarded prizes to two Portuguese projects, and the festival takes place this year in Miami, United States, according to the list of winners available on the event’s website.
The jury for the 2025 edition of the architecture festival distinguished 28 contemporary architecture projects with the WAFX award in various areas, including “Echoes of the Void” in the Urban Segment in São Miguel, Azores, and the Health Centre at the University of Évora, by CLOU architects, both in the Ageing and Health category.
According to the World Architecture Festival website, the WAFX award recognises projects that “use design and architecture to address major global issues such as health, climate change, technology, ethics and values”.
The organisers will announce the overall winner of the WAFX on the last day of the festival, which runs from 12 to 14 November in Miami.
In a press release, architect Maria João Correia, founder of the Segmento Urbano studio, argued that “this achievement represents the affirmation of the creative capacity of national architecture, beyond the established figures of Siza or Souto Moura”.
“The World Architecture Festival highlights visionary and innovative proposals, and this distinction reinforces the export potential of national architecture at a time when the international real estate market increasingly seeks humane, sustainable and contextual solutions,” she said.
The team designed the “Echoes of the Void” project for Furnas, on the island of São Miguel, and it aims to serve as “a last refuge” for those living with a terminal illness.
“Integrated between the dense forest and the lake landscape, the building offers a welcoming and contemplative space for people at the end of their lives. Rather than following the model of a conventional clinical centre, it provides a place that allows for silence, pause and intimacy with time and the landscape,” the studio explained in a press release.
The architecture of the space “draws inspiration from the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance), designing a path where natural light, shadows, vertical planes and empty spaces guide the spatial and emotional experience.”
Maria João Correia, Cristina Lúcio, Sónia Silva and Hiago Carvalho sign the project.
Architect Tiago Tavares, from the CLOU architects studio, signs the project for the University of Évora Health Centre.
According to the festival’s website, the proposal envisages “an educational installation as an open and adaptable ecosystem” that “merges the built form with the landscape to support evolutionary models of learning, social interaction and environmental responsibility”.
“Rather than acting as an isolated building, the project emerges from the terrain as an extension of its natural and urban context, creating a porous and inclusive environment rooted in three guiding principles: Nature, Learning and Sustainability,” reads the description.
The architectural strategy “is inspired by urban morphology, breaking down a monolithic mass into a series of interconnected volumes” that “form a network of squares, alleys and terraces – outdoor spaces that extend everyday life beyond the classroom.”
“Here, formal and informal learning intertwine, encouraging dialogue, spontaneity and collaboration. A continuous roof unifies the overall composition, providing shade and shelter while visually connecting the various programmatic components into a cohesive whole,” reads the project description on the festival’s website.
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